Hope for the Future

If you haven’t attended an Albany in 2030 planning session yet, do so for your sense of hope and trust in a better future for Albany. The meeting at the North Albany Academy Y (formerly PS 20, my alma mater) began promptly at 9:30 and was a combination of new age technology meets old fashioned community planning. Approximately 75 people attended who could engage in voting on the strengths, weaknesses and future visions for Albany. We were divided into tables of 8, with one moderator and one technical assistant who captured our data on an interactive system that instantaneously tallied voting results later.

Interestingly each of us from different neighborhoods thought our neighborhood the best.

We ranged in ages, with Dave Riker and I representing the senior guard with Elissa, David and Chris being there for the 30 and 40 somethings, Khamel, Amanda and Ashley representing the 20’s . There were a few tables of North Albany Academy middle school aged tables there as well.

I met at least three people at my table yesterday who would be terrific Mayors when an opening arrives. I can not tell you how uplifting the 2.5 hours of give and take debate, brainstorming and consensus building was but…. you need to go to one yourself. Check on the city’s web page for the next location and date near you.

A pretty interesting tally of the who was there took place after all the voting, focus group style with a nifty device numbered 0-10 for instantaneous voting. We were split 50/50 female and male, a first for the professional group handling the event. Surprisingly, the largest economic group represented by those who choose to vote (about 64) was household incomes in excess of $100,000 being 24% of those in attendance. The voting totals changed per topic. The topic that had the lowest vote total was the one on economic household income grouping. If all dozen or so who did not vote in that category were to fall into the lowest category, it would have changed the result dramatically…sorta like the participation in the coming Census. If you don’t play, you don’t get counted.

The consensus of our table was that Albany will be filled with diverse, vibrant neighborhoods linked by green ways with a sustainable energy economy providing a leading boost to the dropping of the poverty rate from 30% to 7% while the population grew to 115,000 and moved the I-787 to the Route 4 corridor in East Albany. The people were friendly and engaged with their government which was responsive and user friendly. Some of the table were swimming in the Hudson while others were purchasing their locally grown foods before home composting them in the Public Works provided composters. It’s going to be a more beautiful Albany. I can’t wait to see it, God willing.

Go to one of the planning sessions…you can help make it happen.

God bless,

PS Amanda, Khamel, Elissa, Ashley or Chris would be terrific Mayors in 2030. Be proud you’re an Albanian. They are going to make it a cleaner, greener, healthy and more fun Albany.

This is an awesome goal!!!!
“The consensus of our table was that Albany will be filled with diverse, vibrant neighborhoods linked by green ways with a sustainable energy economy providing a leading boost to the dropping of the poverty rate from 30% to 7% while the population grew to 115,000 and moved the I-787 to the Route 4 corridor in East Albany.”